Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous, just-as-if-I’d never sinned.

In the book of Isaiah, we read about another result of righteousness in the Christian life: “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever” (Isaiah 32:17).

Three products of righteousness are given in that verse: peace, quietness, and assurance. They all come from the realization that we have been made righteous with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Another result is described in Romans 14:17: “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Yesterday’s reading showed us that righteousness brings boldness; today, we add to that peace, quietness, assurance, and joy. All these things are products of righteousness. If we do not receive Christ’s righteousness by faith, we will struggle and try to attain all these other characteristics without ever achieving them. It is pathetic to see Christians trying to be joyful or peaceful, or trying to be relaxed or assured. Someone has told them they ought to be. But it is my experience that when they really get the assurance of sin’s forgiveness and righteousness by faith, they will find it just happens. Joy flows naturally. Peace comes without effort. Assurance is present. Boldness expresses itself. The root problem is getting people to realize that they have been made righteous with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim that I have been made righteous with His righteousness, and I step by faith into the peace, assurance, and joy that this realization brings. Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous, just-as-if-I’d never sinned. Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous, just-as-if-I’d never sinned.

Religious people think they are pretty holy if they point out how sinful they are. The general attitude is that we would be conceited if we claimed to be righteous, that we would be religious if we kept speaking about our failures, our inconsistencies, and the wrongs we’ve committed.

Every Sunday morning in the church where I was brought up, we had to say, “Pardon us, miserable offenders.” I always felt that I didn’t want to be a miserable offender, but when I looked at the other offenders, I could surely agree that we were all miserable. Eventually, I said to myself, If all religion can do is make me miserable, I can be an offender without religion and not be half as miserable. And that is what I became until I met the Lord.

The language of religion continually states, “We are miserable offenders; we have erred and strayed from God’s ways like lost sheep; we have committed the things we ought not to have done and we have left undone the things we ought to have done.”

I could not say those words now; I would be a hypocrite. How could I pray for victory over sin on a Monday morning if I knew that the following Sunday I would be saying that I had erred and strayed, that I had done those things I should not have done and left undone those things I should have done? It would completely undermine the basis of my faith. Yet it sounds so good, so pious.

Let’s make our confession in line with God’s Word and believe it: Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous, “just-as-if-I’d” never sinned.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I bring my confession into line with God’s Word and proclaim: Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous, just-as-if-I’d never sinned. Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

Sanctification is another one of these long, theological words. Let’s break it down. To sanctify is directly related in the original biblical languages to the word for “holy.” So, “to sanctify” means “to make holy.” The English word sanctify is related to the word saint. Sanctification is the process of making something saintly, or holy.

Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. (Hebrews 13:12)

Jesus went outside the city as a sin offering. (See, for example, John 19:16–20.) We learn from the Old Testament that sin offerings could not be offered within the compound of God’s people. (See, for example, Exodus 29:14.) Sanctification always includes separation.

To make ourselves holy, we must offer the right testimony: “Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God, separated from all that is evil. Between all evil and me is the blood of Jesus.”

The one who is sanctified is in an area where God has access to him, but the devil does not. To be sanctified is to be removed from the area of Satan’s visitation and reach and to be placed in an area where we are available to God, but not at home when the devil calls. That is what it is to be sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim that through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

In looking at the sanctifying power of the blood of Jesus, we want to examine a passage from Hebrews that speaks about the apostate—the person who turns away from the Christian faith, having known it, into a deliberate denial and rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks about all the sacred things that he renounces and, in a sense, defiles:

Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common [or unholy] thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29)

It is plain to see from this verse that we are sanctified by the blood of the covenant. But here is a person who has been sanctified by the blood of the New Covenant and then turns back. Let’s look closely at the meaning of trampling underfoot the blood of Jesus. This reference is in relation to the Passover ceremony, where the blood was applied to the lintel and the doorposts, but never to the threshold. We are never to show disrespect for the blood of Jesus.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim my profound respect for the blood of the covenant, through which I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

Just like righteousness, sanctification does not come by effort or by religion, but only by faith in the blood of Jesus. To be sanctified is to be set apart to God. We now belong to God; we are under God’s control and available to Him. Anything that is not of God has no right to approach us; it is kept away by the blood.

Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power [or authority] of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. (Colossians 1:12–13)

Through faith in the blood of Jesus, we have been removed from the area of Satan’s authority and conveyed into the kingdom of God. The word “conveyed [“translated” KJV]” means “carried over from one place to another.” In Scripture, the word is used for a total transfer. In the Old Testament, there were two men, Enoch and Elijah, who were translated from earth to heaven. And both of them went entirely. All that Elijah left behind was his mantle, but his body was gone.

As I understand Scripture, this is true for us, too. We have been totally translated. We aren’t going to be translated; rather, we have been—spirit, soul, and body. We are no longer in the devil’s territory, no longer under the devil’s laws. We are in the territory of the Son of God and under His laws.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim that I have been made holy by faith in the blood of Jesus, transferred totally from the devil’s territory into the territory of the Son of God. Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

In Romans, we read about two kingdoms with their opposing laws of operation. The devil’s law is the law of sin and death; the law of God’s kingdom is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

We are no longer in the devil’s territory, no longer under the devil’s law. His kingdom does not apply to us because we are in another kingdom. We have been translated, carried over—spirit, soul, and body. And this transaction occurs through the blood of Jesus—we are sanctified, set apart to God, by the blood of Jesus.

Now, let’s consider the implications in relation to the body of the believer. I can say by experience that this is where it really begins to operate, when we bring it down to the realm of our physical bodies. Consider this: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

The words “bought at a price” take us back to the theme of redemption. We are bought back out of the hand of the devil with the blood of Jesus. How much of us was bought back? Just our spirits? No, both our spirits and our bodies belong to God because Jesus paid the total redemption price of His blood.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim that I have been bought back totally from the devil’s kingdom and brought into the kingdom of God. My spirit and body belong to God, because Jesus paid the total redemption price of His precious blood. Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

We know that the word sanctify is related to the word saint, and is directly related in the original biblical languages to the word for “holy.” So, sanctification means being made holy. God has planned for us to be made holy.

Holiness is a unique attribute among the attributes of God. God has many wonderful attributes—love, power, wisdom, and so forth—but all those have a quality that we could say is remotely reflected in human beings. We have experienced love from human beings. We know of those who are powerful. We have met human beings who are wise. Of course, these qualities appear in humans to a degree immeasurably less than they do in God, but at least we have an idea of what these qualities are. But when we talk about holiness, there is nothing else to compare it to. God is uniquely holy.

Holiness is something that is not found outside of God. Really, in some ways you can measure how much you know God by how much you know holiness. I relate it this way: We thank God for His goodness, we praise God for His greatness, but we worship God for His holiness. Worship is the response to the holiness of God.

In the Old Testament, God said, “You shall be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44), and, in the New Testament, Peter restated the Lord’s words, saying, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). Yet two different ways of attaining holiness were being referred to. I will compare these two ways—one by the old covenant, and the other by the new covenant—over the next few days.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim that God is holy, deserving of worship—and that through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

Let us look at the way holiness was to be attained under the old covenant. God said, “You shall be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). All of Leviticus 11 enumerates complicated regulations regarding what to eat, what to wear, and what makes one clean or unclean.

God’s requirement was to “consecrate yourselves” (Leviticus 11:44). But you find out from this chapter that maintaining holiness was very complicated. There was a series of the most involved regulations.

These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard…; the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon…. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening. (Leviticus 11:29–31)

According to this regulation, for instance, if a mouse died and someone picked it up by the tail, he would be unclean until that evening. But Scripture goes on to give further regulations about the container the mouse might fall in and the article of clothing it might touch, then gives instructions on how to deal with the uncleanness. Observing all of these regulations would be a full-time job.

God said that if you succeeded in following these rules, you would be holy. But if you were going to attain holiness by keeping a set of rules, you would have to keep all the rules all the time. You could not omit one at any time. But thank God that He provided a better way—because keeping all these rules is impossible for sinful humans.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim that God’s plan is to make me holy—not by observance of a set of rules, but through the blood of Jesus, by which I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God.

We can tell that revival is here when God’s people are more interested in being holy than being healed. Our standard of priority is wrong. If I were to organize a healing meeting, people would come streaming in, but if I were to teach about holiness, the attendance would drop. In actual fact, holiness is much more important than healing. Healing is temporary and will help you to get through this life only. Thank God for it. But holiness is eternal; it will be with you forever in heaven. Something has to happen by the power of the Holy Spirit to change our sense of values.

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:32)

The inheritance is for those who have been sanctified. This passage says the Word of God can bring you into that inheritance. Yet how is sanctification attained under God’s better way, the new covenant? Jesus commissioned Saul of Tarsus when He first revealed Himself to Saul (who later became Paul). He said,

I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. (Acts 26:17–18)

We can be sanctified by keeping all the rules of the Old Testament—if we keep them all the time. Again, this is impossible for sinful humans. The other way is completely different—not by keeping a set of rules, but by faith in Jesus.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim my faith in Jesus Christ, affirming that through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. Amen.

My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, redeemed,cleansed, by the blood of Jesus.

A very distinctive mark of personality is the ability to speak. At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended from heaven, He spoke in “other tongues” (Acts 2:4) through the disciples. By this He signified that He had come, as a Person, to take up His dwelling on earth. He is now the permanent, personal representative of the Godhead residing on earth.

From Pentecost on, each time the Holy Spirit comes to take up His residence as a Person in the body of a believer, it is appropriate that He should manifest His presence by speaking out of that believer in a new language that is supernaturally imparted. In effect, He is saying, “Now you know that I am here as a Person to indwell your body.”

For this reason, in 1 Corinthians 6:19, Paul said, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” He emphasized that speaking in tongues is not merely a brief, supernatural experience; beyond that, it is a divinely given sign that the Holy Spirit, as a Person, has taken up His dwelling in the believer’s body, thereby making it a sacred temple. This truth places a solemn obligation upon each believer to keep his body in a condition of holiness that is appropriate for God’s temple.

Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus and the work of Your Holy Spirit. I proclaim that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed, by the blood of Jesus.